Michael Atchison has interviewed David Byrne, Nick Lowe, Bill Flanagan, and Sarah Vowell in these pages. He is the author of True Sons: A Century of Missouri Tigers Basketball. XL is his first novel-in-progress.

American Gothic was a subterranean shithole bar known for its existentially tortured clientele and extreme indifference to the minimum drinking age. I had been inside the Goth a couple of times, but it wasn't my kind of place. It had a basement-level entrance and blacked-out windows. The space wasn't very big, and it seemed even smaller thanks to a low ceiling and miniscule restrooms. The regulars dressed all in black. Skinny boys with penciled eyebrows did a twitchy dance with their elbows pinned to their sides, while the girls wore pancake makeup with dramatic dark eyes and black lips, and swirled to the sounds of Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The whole thing seemed like a put-on to me except for a portly young woman named Eliza whose abandon was genuine and joyful. Eliza was in my ancient civilizations class, and we had studied together a little. In class she seemed sweet, demure and unremarkable, with a wardrobe that didn't differentiate her from the crowd. The first time I walked into the Goth, there may have been thirty people there, and the first thing I noticed was a plump dervish on the dance floor. I didn't recognize her, but Eliza saw me mid-spin and rushed over and gave me a hug. I thought I was being accosted by a strangely hospitable vampire until she said "David, it's me, Eliza!"

"Holy crap," I said, "I didn't recognize you."

"Nobody does," she said, "but this is the real me!"

"Really? I never would have guessed," I said and then hesitated. "I hope that didn't sound negative. That's not how I meant it."

"No worries. I don't mean to sound self-pitying," she said, "but my life is pretty boring during the daylight. I don't attract much attention from guys, and I'd attract the wrong kind of attention dressed like this. But at night I put on my real face and come out with people who are like me. I get to let loose, and everyone is like 'hats off to the fat girl!' "

"I didn't think goths smiled so much," I said.

"The ones who are trying on a pose don't," she replied, "but the real ones are in it to have fun. Come and dance with me!"

For the next couple of songs, I bopped around in my blue jeans and white oxford shirt while everyone looked at me like I was the freak.

The place was owned by a young guy named Kyle Silvey. Hutch knew him. Hutch knew everyone who worked in the bars in town, which was probably related to his employment history or his undefined business, or perhaps both. Hutch took a copy of our tape to Kyle and told him that XL was looking for places to play. Kyle listened and said it was good. He offered to let us play on a Tuesday night, which was always slow at the Goth. He proposed a dollar cover charge, with us getting half of the take. He said that if we brought a hundred people in, he would have us back.

Interview: Alice Bag of Stay at Home Bomb Alice Bag (nee Armendariz), who shone bright in the Los Angeles punk scene of the late-1970s, will be in town Saturday to read from her book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage and to play a few tunes at 7 pm at Rochambeau Library.

Review: Julian Casablancas at the Paradise Casablancas's solo debut, Phrazes for the Young (RCA), is a bizarre and twisted romp through sophisticated musical stylings that, especially in a live setting, sound light years away from the compact garage minimalism of early Strokes. This was evident from the first notes of the show.

Interview: Ozzy Osbourne Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."

The Molenes get dark and low-down Roots music is a big tent. The Molenes have poked their noses into just about every corner of it over the course of their first two records, trying out everything from bluegrass to rockabilly and moving from ripping twanged-out guitar solos to more refined acoustic finger-picking.

Scarlett is the new Black Olneyville's finest post-punk/goth/sludge metal outfit went missing for the better part of 2010, but we're ecstatic to report that Lolita Black has returned with a new lead singer in Ms. Scarlett Delgado.

BECK ON BECK | July 16, 2014 "Every song has its own kind of life, its own gestation, its own way of working itself out."

STAYING POSITIVE | April 09, 2014 "When we started this band, we wanted to build something that was very inclusive."

XL | August 15, 2012 American Gothic was a subterranean shithole bar known for its existentially tortured clientele and extreme indifference to the minimum drinking age.

'PEOPLE WANTED SOMETHING HONEST' | July 28, 2010 In a world that's changing at the speed of light, the Gaslight Anthem reaches into the past to forge classic elements into a timeless rock and roll sound.

FLANAGAN’S EMPIRE | February 05, 2010 Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.